I'm going to take a class!

I hadn't even heard about this yesterday. It's very esoteric: "The Mezuzah and the Mandylion: Acculturation and Inculturation -- Folk Religion, Piety and Art in Judaism and Christianity." It's a five-week Wednesday evening class taught by the priest at St. Jude's (the Catholic church right up the hill from us) and the rabbi who conducts services in their building on Saturdays. I read about it in today's paper (here's the article; scroll down to the bottom if you just want to read their favorite the-priest-and-the-rabbi jokes)). The topic is religious icons and amulets of Judaism and Christianity. I'd never even thought in terms of Christian amulets; to me "amulet" goes with pagan religions, or native religions, or fantasy wizardry. But of course, that's functionally what many crucifixes and those St. Christopher's medals are.

I went back to the woods and discovered that I was a bit more observant today than yesterday. For one thing, when I picked a sprig of the mystery plant, I discovered a nursery log with neat fungi at its base. Then, even more noteworthy, it turns out that once I get about halfway up the hillside, I've been no longer paying attention to the trees but just looking at plants on the ground. I discovered this when I abruptly noticed that the upper half of the forest there is actually a red cedar grove, rather than the douglas firs and pines (and wintering oaks) elsewhere in the woods. Surprise! That's not at all common here, but those trees were the mainstay of the native economies up further north around Puget Sound. The mystery tree, by the way, is a new one for me: osmaronia cerasiformis, aka Indian peach, Indian plum, or oso berry.

( Pictures: red cedar and a rather strange tree )